How Anita Bryant's anti-LGBTQ+ legacy lives on in Florida
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An activist (left) denounces Anita Bryant at San Francisco Pride in 1977. Photo: Archive Photos/Getty Images. Bryant (right) on the day a Miami-Dade ordinance banning sexual orientation-based discrimination was repealed. Photo: Bettmann / Contributor via Getty Images
Growing up in Panama City, Nadine Smith remembers watching Anita Bryant on television "almost daily," using her sing-songy voice to sell Florida orange juice.
- She also remembers when the former pageant queen and singer's messaging took a sharp pivot.
- "She was a benign guest on the television who suddenly turned into this malevolent presence that was saying awful things," said Smith, a longtime LGBTQ+ activist who is currently the executive director of Equality Florida.
Why it matters: Bryant's shift in the late 1970s from citrus industry spokesperson to Christian crusader against gay rights cemented her legacy as one of the most potent anti-LGBTQ+ activists of her time.
- It's a legacy that lives on in Florida politics today, in the wake of her death last month at 84.
Flashback: After two decades as an entertainer with several albums and a performance at President Lyndon B. Johnson's funeral under her belt, Bryant launched the Save Our Children coalition in 1977.
- The group targeted a Miami-Dade County ordinance banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, which Bryant said at the time "condones immorality and discriminates against my children's rights to grow up in a healthy, decent community."
- She argued that because they couldn't reproduce, gay people turned to children to recruit more members to their ranks, Steve Rothaus, a longtime South Florida journalist covering LGBTQ+ issues, told Axios.
- The campaign was successful. Miami-Dade voters turned out in droves to repeal the policy. The same year, Florida lawmakers passed a ban on gay adoption that was repealed only a decade ago.
State of play: Maligning LGBTQ+ people as a threat to children "worked then, and it works today," Rothaus said.
- Restrictions on trans healthcare are bolstered by slogans like "Let Kids Be Kids." A 2023 law curtailing drag shows came out of rhetoric that such performances "sexualize" children.
- Florida's Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed "Don't Say Gay" by critics, was born from the false claim that learning or reading about LGBTQ+ people would turn children gay or transgender.
The other side: Republican leaders have defended such laws as protecting a parent's right to exert control over how to talk to their child about sexual orientation and gender identity.
Yes, but: Even that way of thinking stems directly from Bryant's advocacy, Anthony Verdugo, executive director of the conservative Christian Family Coalition, told Axios.
- People think the parental rights movement is new, "when in reality, it's been around for half a century," Verdugo said.
- Bryant "was a visionary," he said. "She was a leader for our time."
What they're saying: Smith, of Equality Florida, underscored the pain Bryant's rhetoric caused for queer people and families on the other end of her attacks — then and now.
- With history "repeating itself," Smith said, it's important "to remember that it took us uniting as a community and calling on allies … to very visibly stand with us to stop the damage."
- "We're still here. We're still resisting. We're still turning the tide."